July 30, 2011

..Pretty Polished Nails

Unfortunately, I have the terrible and straight up disgusting habit of biting my nails. I have been doing it since I was a kid and it has resulted in unattractive small little half nails from all the years of abuse. YUCK! This past month I have seen so many pretty new nail polish colors come out it has lit a fire inside me to finally go to nail-biter rehab and kick this addiction.

So far so good! My nails look better than they have in years and I am now the proud owner of not one.. not two.. but EIGHT new fabulous shades! I discovered I need to change the color every few days in order to keep the urge to bite them at bay. People always say to me that they wish they could paint their own nails, well I say you can! The following tips really help with the end result.

1. Remove any nail polish and file to desired length first then WASH HANDS. If you don’t sometimes you’ll end up with little bumps in the first coat from the nail file dust. I really don’t feel a base coat is an absolute necessity. I use one sometimes when I want my nails to feel stronger but don’t notice a difference in the end result so feel free to skip it.

2. Make sure to leave enough time in between coats to avoid air bubbles!

3. If you don’t have a super steady hand, use higher quality polish. Some of the lower quality ones go on pretty thick or dry too fast making it hard to smooth out. The smoother the polish goes on by itself, the better!

4. A Q-tip and nail polish remover are good for cleaning up stray polish, but when you are painting with your non-dominant hand it helps if you press it to a straight ledge and just focus on moving the brush (excuse my curling iron burn on my finger).

5. If all else fails-- you can always recruit a friend to do it for you!

Lauren and I are both wearing Essie – “Watermelon.” My dog wouldn’t let me take a picture without her in it, so everyone this is Alba! You can find my new favorite accessories listed and pictured below from left to right.

1 comment
:

I'm obsessed with painting my nails too! I probably have over 15 OPI colors right now (not to mention a ton of other brands as well). Love the new blog Erin! Maybe I'll have to fly you to Tampa to plan a party for me sometime!